Berlin wants to elect a new state parliament in just under three weeks. It is the repetition of the 2021 breakdown. But the date has not yet been set. Several plaintiffs had sued against the rescheduling of the ballot. A first decision should be made tomorrow.
Tomorrow morning, the Federal Constitutional Court will publish its urgently awaited emergency decision on the Berlin House of Representatives elections on February 12. This was announced by the highest German court in Karlsruhe. The outcome depends on whether the election can be repeated completely as planned in just under two weeks – or, in the worst case, the date has to be canceled and postponed again. The decision of the Second Senate will be published in writing at 9.30 a.m.
Because of the many mishaps – ballot papers were missing, polling stations were temporarily closed or stayed open longer, long queues formed in front of many – the Berlin Constitutional Court had declared the election of September 26, 2021 to be invalid overall. So it has to be repeated in its entirety. The twelve district assemblies are also to be elected a second time. Several constitutional complaints were filed in Karlsruhe against this verdict.
The announced decision concerns the most prominent of the pending proceedings with 43 complainants – and there, to all appearances, only the urgent application. Because shortly before the publication of the decision, all members of the House of Representatives were given the opportunity to comment on the application on the main issue by March 2nd. With the urgent application, the plaintiffs want to ensure that the repeat election cannot take place until Karlsruhe has finally decided in the main proceedings.
The Bundestag elections, which took place at the same time, are also to be partially repeated in Berlin. That was decided by the Bundestag. However, there is still no date for this, and a constitutional complaint has also been lodged against the Bundestag decision. The Federal Constitutional Court will not decide on this on Tuesday.
